This invention relates to a metabolic fitness training apparatus. Namely, the present invention provides an apparatus for monitoring a person""s metabolic rate during exercise.
Physical training fitness devices are useful because they assist a person in determining how hard his or her body is working and whether or not he/she wants to exercise harder. These physical training fitness devices measure certain body conditions, such as temperature, heart rate, rate of perspiration, calories burned, breathing rate, weight loss, etc. to help guide one in modifying his or her training efforts.
Currently, a number of physical training fitness methods or devices exist to monitor one""s health such as urine monitoring of glucose and ketones, or self-blood glucose monitor (SBGM). These type of devices are impractical for use during exercise.
In addition to being unpleasant, urine monitoring is somewhat inaccurate since substances measured in the urine must first be filtered by the kidney and pass through the bladder prior to being available for analysis.
Furthermore, SBGM requires the exerciser to make a fingertip prick with a lancet to produce a drop of capillary blood, transfer the blood to a reagent strip, precisely time the reaction of the blood with the strip, and read the result using either a visual color chart or a reflectance meter. Each of these steps has the ability to introduce error into the measurement.
Physical training fitness devices which can be used during exercise offer a number of advantages over those that cannot be used during exercise by allowing one to adjust in real time his or her training efforts while exercising. The most commonly used type of physical training fitness devices for personal use include those which measure heart rates. In particular, these heart rate measuring devices comprise a sensor which a person can attach to oneself to measure his/her heart rate during exercise. Since there is a beneficial heart rate range to train in, the exerciser can adjust the strength, duration, etc. of his/her training to get the heart rate into that optimum range while exercising.
However, these heart rate measuring physical training devices do not necessarily offer the best safeguard against overexertion. For example, in order for the body to fuel its efforts during exercise, it must metabolize fat (or sugar if available) to convert them into calories for energy. As the body exerts itself harder, it metabolizes more fat by increasing its metabolic rate. However, there is a maximum rate at which fat can be metabolized (xe2x80x9cmaximum fat burn ratexe2x80x9d). This maximum fat burn rate will be exceeded if a body over-exerts itself during exercise. To fulfill its need for more energy when over-exerting itself, the body increases its metabolic rate in excess of the maximum fat burn rate such that the body will begin to undesirably metabolize muscle tissue. Current physical training devices such as a heart rate device would not be able to detect when the maximum fat burn rate has been exceeded.
The present invention provides a metabolic fitness training apparatus for measuring acetone concentration in a body""s exhaling breath as an indicator of the body""s metabolic rate.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a metabolic fitness training apparatus comprises a housing, an acetone sensitive sensor, an optical detection circuit, and a mouthpiece attached to the housing. The sensor contains reagents such as salicylaldehyde or derivatives thereof which react with acetone to change the optical transparency of the sensor. The optical detection circuit may include a LED and a photodetector or a photometric instrument to measure the change in optical transparency of the sensor, and correlate that change to acetone concentration. There may also be a display to view the acetone concentration.